


Old And Guilty

by icarus_chained



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Ficlet Collection, Gen, Spies & Secret Agents, Violence, connection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-16
Updated: 2012-08-16
Packaged: 2017-11-12 07:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/488203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A set of five microfics. Nick Fury, on Tony Stark, and the costs of the job</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old And Guilty

**Author's Note:**

> Think this is the last of the ficlet sets. *smiles sheepishly* For this round, anyway.

**Genius:**

If there's one thing Nick has learned, over the years and the crises, it's that genius is volatile. Expansive, explosive, and prone to taking itself out in its own flames. Sometimes, though, if you can grab it soon enough, risk sticking your hand into the fire long enough to hold it, and point it somewhere other than itself ... you can teach it to last. 

It's a surefire way to get yourself burned, yeah. But watching Stark, watching a crash constantly arrested, and all the force in the world turned aside because one man fucking _says_ so ... Nick figures some things are worth getting burned for.

**Genuine:**

Stark doesn't like secrets, doesn't like lying. It can be hard to tell, sometimes, because the man can do misdirection, sleight of hand, an onslaught of distraction like you wouldn't believe, but cut through the bull, cut down to the bone, and what you got was an almost painfully honest, genuine man. A goddamn fucking innocent, in way too many ways.

There are days, looking at Stark, hell, looking at _all_ of them, when Nick feels way too fucking old, and way too fucking guilty.

**Concern:**

The world fell in a confusion of deafening, ringing silence, and the more-felt-than-heard thunder of collapsing masonry. Nick forced himself up off the ground, forced himself to his feet despite the ringing in his ears, and the hollow soundlessness of the world around him. With no hearing to warn him, the touch of metal against the elbow on his blind side startled a gun into his hand, and a bitten curse to his lips.

When he spun, hiding the stagger under the raising of his gun, it was to find a crinkled, apologetic grin, and genuine concern in Tony Stark's face.

**Heart-stopping:**

They're none of them invulnerable. No-one knows that as well as Nick. He's seen them, too many times. He's seen the darkness, and the icy blue, cloud in Clint's eyes. He's seen Natasha when the drugs finally gave way, and strength reemerged from the shaking bundle of limbs she'd become. He's seen the blood in Phil's mouth, and the faith in his eyes, and the film clouding over them.

They're none of them invulnerable. He knows. But watching the flickering of the blue light in Stark's chest, watching it falter, falter, fail ... He feels his own heart slow, feels it beat sick into stillness, just for a second. The way it always does. And always has.

**Mesmerising:**

Nick had watched Howard crouching over an engine, a machine, a bomb casing, any number of times. He'd watched oil-stained, scarred hands turn metal over, watched them root around to find the trigger, and guide it gently down. He'd seen the fascination, the fury, the tense determination. All of that.

Watching Howard's son, watching the hammered fire in Tony's eyes and the light of his reactor glowing over this new, more alien bomb ... it's as mesmerising as it always was.

**Author's Note:**

> To clarify for those who want it: in 'Heart-stopping', no, Tony's not dead, it's just (yet another) reactor scare. And the bit about Natasha didn't take place during the movie, though Clint and Phil obviously did. *shrugs, smiles faintly*


End file.
